The toString() method returns a string representing the source code of the function.

Syntax

function.toString(indentation)

Parameters

indentationObsolete since Gecko 17

The amount of spaces to indent the string representation of the source code. If indentation is less than or equal to -1, most unnecessary spaces are removed.

Description

The Function object overrides the toString method inherited from Object; it does not inherit Object.prototype.toString. For Function objects, the toString method returns a string representation of the object in the form of a function declaration. That is, toString decompiles the function, and the string returned includes the function keyword, the argument list, curly braces, and the source of the function body.

JavaScript calls the toString method automatically when a Function is to be represented as a text value, e.g. when a function is concatenated with a string.

The toString() method will throw a TypeError exception ("Function.prototype.toString called on incompatible object"), if its this value object is not a Function object. It will also throw for Proxy objects, for example.

Gecko-specific notes

Since Gecko 17.0 (Firefox 17 / Thunderbird 17 / SeaMonkey 2.14), Function.prototype.toString() has been implemented by saving the function's source. The decompiler was removed, so that the indentation parameter is not needed any more. See bug 761723 for more details.